Dietitian helps Kinsley's ShopRite customers make good choices

On a typical day, Lindsay Vaughn helps people select healthy foods, creates special diets for her clients and helps them understand product labels.

CHAD SMITH

On a typical day, Lindsay Vaughn helps people select healthy foods, creates special diets for her clients and helps them understand product labels.

Vaughn is a dietitian, so that all fits the bill. But the difference is that Vaughn's office is not in a hospital or clinic. It's in Kinsley's ShopRite in Brodheadsville.

Vaughn is the in-house dietitian for the supermarket. She works full time, offering for free to Kinsley's customers the exact type of services dietitians offer to paying clients.

It's all part of a growing trend in the supermarket industry to promote healthy foods and help customers live healthy lifestyles.

"I'm sort of the missing piece between what people are told they should eat and implementing change," Vaughn said.

Vaughn, who was hired by Kinsley's ShopRite six months ago, said that as the Kinsley's ShopRite dietitian, her tasks are varied. One day she could be leading a group of senior citizens around the store to give them suggestions on meals they could make or she could be giving Girl Scouts in the store tips on healthy eating.

Still on other days, she might even travel to a local library or school to lead a healthy lifestyle workshop.

Though Vaughn, 23, a registered dietitian with a degree from West Chester University, knows how to compose diets for people with heart disease, diabetes and a range of other aliments, the bulk of her work really revolves around helping people lose weight.

"When I'm in the supermarket, I do lots and lots of label reading with customers. People want to make positive changes, they want to be healthier, but there's so many different brands out there, so many advertisements and so many misconceptions. It can all be confusing."

For example, she said that a mother recently came in and asked for a healthy snack that she could buy for her children. The mother had thought that apple sauce was a good idea, and Vaughn agreed.

But Vaughn told the mother that it'd probably be a better idea to buy the apple sauce that just has naturally occurring sugar in it instead of any added sugar. "It makes a big difference," Vaughn said.

Another guy came in and said he wanted to lose weight but had been eating fast food every day for lunch. Vaughn recommended he make chili or other one-pot dishes, which are healthy, relatively easy to make and yield many meals.

"People do want to eat healthily but they are also often on the go. I understand. I've been there," Vaughn said.

Vaughn says she tries to be empathetic with her clients. She does not criticize any food choices that customers make, she says, but rather points customers in a new direction if she thinks it's appropriate.

The Kinsley family decided to hire Vaughn when they opened their new, state-of-the-art ShopRite in August. The Kinsleys very much wanted the new store, the largest ShopRite in America, to offer shoppers the kind of healthy food options that are so much in demand and felt a dietitian could add value to the overall customer experience.

Wakefern made the move as part of an overall push to help improve customers' health and give them the services they were asking for.

So far, 56 of ShopRite's 250 stores have dietitians.

"The customers tell us that they absolutely love it. And it's great because if the dietitian gives a teenager advice, let's say, that teenager is likely to tell his parents about smarter food choices, and that could lead to the family making better food choices," said Santina Stankevich, a spokeswoman for Wakefern.

Vaughn says she really enjoys what she does and hopes to stay with Kinsley's ShopRite for a long time. The supermarket even has little stickers that bear Vaughn's image next to products that are more healthful. The stickers say "dietitian's picks."

When it comes to her thoughts on the general state of Americans' health, Vaughn says that she really does believe that obesity is a problem.

She stresses the importance of exercise and says that people need to take a wholistic approach to eating. She says that people shouldn't simply think that eating or not eating one food is the silver bullet.

"You have to look at the big picture," Vaughn said. "And I'm here to help people do it."